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Monday, April 4, 2011

Before and After Party: A favorite!

Hello all! It’s time for the next Before and After Party! Whoot! This time I’m showing you an oldie (it’s been done for a few years now) but it’s one of my very, very favorite transformations in our house. LOVE.

We have a fireplace in our bedroom, and yes, it’s fanfreakingtastic. Really. It was all hubby’s idea. The day we decided to add it in to our house plans, I was huddled in a corner, biting my nails, shaking, freaking out about the added expense.

But yet again…he was so right. I end up saying that way more often than I’d like.

We LOVED the mantel and surround on the fireplace -- it was nice and beefy:

I just don’t know what I was thinking with that tile. It was peach:

Because my father-in-law was a tile extraordinaire, we asked for his help to redo it and make it more us. Cause peach isn’t us.

He and his assistant did SUCH a fantastic job, I love it so much still. My original plan was to do glass mosaic glass tiles – and then I priced out the glass tiles I wanted, and whoosh, it was going to be crazy expensive (like $600) to do this small space.

Plan B: Lowe’s. :)

I found a perfect alternative for only $10 a square foot:

It’s a mix of greens, rusts, browns and greys and I’m telling you, it’s SO gorgeous. Oh, I love it so!

Because you can cut the sheet the tiles lay on before installing, we only ended up needing about eight 12 by 12 sheets of tile.

For the hearth, it got even better. I found slate tiles for just over $2 each:

Oh the colors are luscious, and they match the mosaic tiles perfectly.

So the total cost for this project was just over $100 for tile. SCORE! (And a few bucks more for the grout.)

My father-in-law took the old tile off before reinstalling the new stuff – and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I was nervous about that part, but it came off so easily, they were able to use the old board for the new tile.

One thing to consider when using slate – each tile will vary in thickness, so be careful when installing. If you look close, you can see how the tiles toward the front are thicker than those in the back:

You don’t notice it unless you’re looking at it a certain way:

But if you use this on a floor, it’s something you’ll want to watch.

We also sealed the tile after everything was installed (you need to wait a certain amount of time before doing so, check the instructions) – I absolutely recommend doing this because it really brings out the colors in the tile and makes them even more deep and beautiful!

The last step -- those (BLINDING!) brass bars. They came right off – if you have them check to see if yours pop off. They are held on with magnets on the back:

You’ll just have the black fireplace behind it, so you can just take them off and leave it at that. We thought the bars made the fireplace look just a bit more finished, so I just spray painted them with oil-rubbed bronze paint:

Even though the bars get hot, the spray paint has held up great! I thought I’d have to use a high heat paint, but the ORB works just fine. It’s held up for years now.

And now we have a fireplace that is just our style, and it’s one of our favorite before and afters:

You can see I also changed out the light and you can see more about that here. The art above the fireplace is made from canvases and wallpaper and you can see that here.

It’s an oldie but goodie but I love it so much I figured it was worth mentioning again. :)

Our fireplace before:

And after my thrifty tile shopping and my father-in-law’s mad skills:

And the wide before shot:

And the after, with a plethora of Where’s Waldo changes:

:)

So it’s time to see your projects! Can’t wait to see!

Remember, be sure to link the html to your post, not your blog! The linky will be open for a week, so if your post isn’t ready, you can always link up later.

I would appreciate if you could link back to my site and include this purdy button:

57 comments:

Now THAT is a great Before and After! The peach tile really wasn't you, you're right. But the new(er) tile is fabulous. You'd think that a *new* home couldn't be improved upon, but you have done such an amazing job of finding ways (big and small) to update your space even more. You should be so proud of yourself. :)

I love those little tiles like that. I'm considering a tile backsplash in the bathroom and I'm hoping to use that kind. Saw some really pretty ones on overstock!

When we were house shopping a few years ago there was a home with a slate floor in the kitchen. It was oh so beautiful but way too bumpy for the feet! Especially in a room as busy as the kitchen. Perfect for your fireplace though since you aren't standing on it!

my aunt used those exact same tiles (the mosaic sheets) in her bathroom, and they are GORGEOUS. love them- she got me hooked. it's so fun to see them pop up in a whole new setting and look just as lovely!

what an amazing transformation. makes me envious...you see I went with the same looking 'peach' ones years ago in my kitchen and hubs does not want to redo our whole kitchen floor, so I will need to live with it I guess...so I love how yours turned out!!!

The tiles look great, perfect update that should have a long life span. Thanks for hosting the party, my first time joining! Was so tired when I linked last night, forgot to add your button to the posts, but they are there now!

First I want to say - I check your blog almost everyday, and I enjoy reading so much what you do to make your home beautiful! We used that same tile on our kitchen backsplash and I love it. I would love to use it on our fireplace as well to tie everything in. Gotta convince the husband of that first...

I'd like to know how you father in law took up the floor tiles and reinstalled new ones without messing up the carpet. I'd love to do this to my fireplace, but I'm afraid I would mess up the carpet's tightness or something and have to get new carpet!

Hi- I'm #448-what's that all about-the world's biggest before/after bloggy party!! I, too, decided to feature something I made a few months back, when I first started blogging! Everyday I look at it and love it more and more-it's great when things work out like that, don't ya think!!??Thanks for the invite!Claire

What brand of spray paint did you use for the gold plates on your fireplace? We have the same ones and I love to do that to ours! We're currently trying to sell our house and that would really make our family room fireplace look even better! Thanks! Andrea

Oh Em Gee...I have scoured the Internet for months looking for a fireplace redo like this!!! My family room fireplace is just like your before. I was checking out mosaic tile at Home Depot & Lowes TODAY! I just haven't been sure about what to do with the floor tiles. I had kinda decided on a travertine tile but today I just decided to pick out and do around the fireplace and then figure out the floor later...then I will have to make a descision and I can only do that under pressure! I'm glad I got that off my chest! Love your blog!